Where wombats dominate and humans accommodate!

Our Mange Project

The Sarcoptic Mite – Wiping out our Wombats

A more hideous death sentence could not be imagined. This parasite burrows
into the wombat’s skin, first targeting the softer moist areas such as the ears
and eyes, and in a female wombat, the pouch. So yes, if there is a joey, it is
also infected. The mites reproduce, tunneling into the wombat's skin, feeding off its blood serum, encasing the wombat in a thick crust of scabs from the
animal’s scratching, leading to open wounds which are attractive to flies who
lay their eggs in the open wounds. Maggots grow and start eating at the wombat,
maggots will enter the wombat’s body through its body openings and start eating
at the wombat from the inside. All this will take months. The wombat will start
to come out during daylight hours to eat as it is starving to death, with
eventual organ failure and death. This is the death sentence inflicted on
wombats since white settler occupation of Australia, and the introduction of
non-native species such as foxes, who also suffer this parasite. Foxes
are also a perfect vector for the sarcoptic mite, foxes will enter wombat
burrows, thus spreading the infection into the environment. Wombat to wombat infection
also occurs. Wombats will move about from burrow to burrow, further spreading
the mites into the environment.

Wombats are losing to mange. Over our 11 years of operation we have received
reports of, and seen hugely increasing incidences of, mange in all parts of
southern NSW where wombats live (and in the ACT and southern States).

The NSW Department of Primary Industries uses the following criterion as one
of the definitions of animal cruelty: “Animals which are left untreated following an injury or illness”

Do you think you are lucky with your property bordering a national park in
New South Wales? You can be rest assured that you will have no wombats in the
next 2 decades, the NSW government is currently ensuring this. Just one
example, the Bendeela Recreation Area, has had sightings of manged wombats
going back 30 years. Nothing has been done to help these animals.

At present the Australian and State Governments are doing nothing to control
or manage mange within wombat populations and are leaving wombats in national
park areas to suffer and eventually succumb and die, in full public view. This
has to be one of the largest acts of animal neglect and cruelty, in full public
view and nothing is being said or done. Sarcoptic mange is going to be the
demise of this species in 2 decades we believe. For some unknown reason it has
been left unactioned within Australia and reached epidemic proportions years
ago. Still no action from the Government. Why?

The current number of wombats dying of mange is not sustainable to the
species. The fact that wombats can now be seen suffering from this parasite in
public places, tourist sites in full view, sick, dying or in fact dead is
beyond belief. It surely has to be one of the largest cases of animal neglect
in Australia currently, leading to animal cruelty as the death for a wombat
with mange is long, very long with horrific suffering. Why wombats are being
left to suffer in full public view is another question.

We have been watching the neglect continue, escalate and in some areas take
over entire micro populations with no action to even end the suffering, let
alone treat or help the wombats in question. The amount of wombats who need
immediate assistance grows each week. The reality of helping these wombats
listed, before they die is minimal due to the vast extent of areas now infected
across New South Wales. The fact the Australian Government is not assisting in
national parks and such areas leaves a lot of questions to be answered, however
wombats don't have the luxury of this time anymore.

Dead manged wombat at Bendeela Recreation Area, left in full view of visiting campers. July 2017

Wombat at Coorangooba campground, Wollemi National Park, early signs of mange and out grazing at 2pm. August 2017

What We are Doing

We intend to change this for wombats, change it completely. We will tell you
just what is really happening.

We are receiving and recording all sightings of manged wombats.

We are highlighting the plight of manged wombats through our Facebook page
and other media.

We want to raise $100,000 through our GoFundMe campaign to build quarantine
facilities/hospital burrows for treatment of the less severely affected wombats
in our area. Yes it is a large sum of money but it is small in terms of what is
needed. If we are successful in our request, the additional funds raised through this campaign will also support quarantine
facilities at other wombat sanctuaries. This infrastructure will be
built for now, and for future generations to use. The intention is that the
work and funding put into these stages will be set in concrete for wombats and
working with wombats and mange. For Sleepy Burrows, the funds will be directed to building new large, hardfenced enclosures (corrugated tin sheeting) with hospital bunker
burrows for adult wombats, quarantined away from our current enclosures system for juvenile and ready-to-release healthy wombats.

What else we have done:We have written to the NSW Environment Minister to offer our expertise and
for the Minister to visit our Sanctuary to see firsthand how we will treat
manged wombats. We have received a response which in a nutshell advised that NPWS/Office of Environment and Heritage are awaiting the documented outcomes of a NPWS 2015 mange treatment program at Bents Basin before they will do anything to assist sick and dying wombats in other areas managed by NSW government authorities, such as Bendeela Recreation Area. Meanwhile the wombats continue to suffer.

We have written to Water NSW, the authority charged with the caretaking of
the Bendeela Recreation Area, to offer our expertise to help manged wombats in
that area. We are awaiting a written response, having received a telephone call from a communications officer from whom we requested a written response addressing our concern.

We are going to start somewhere, we simply cannot sit and 'wait' and watch
this anymore. We are going to start at the sanctuary, and extend our work and
knowledge further afield and set up similar quarantine stations for wombats
within NSW. Yes, we will need to fund this all. Yes, we will need to educate
and teach regarding this. No, we will not save all the wombats, most will die
BUT we have to start somewhere.

We can, through this infrastructure start to ensure that some wombats will
survive, that some wombats will be relocated to mange free areas afterwards and
that the wombats suffering so hideously will be put to rest, and that the
wombats with mange, who are not going to ever respond to treatment can be
highlighted and helped in a humane way.

The Burrow Flap Treatment Method

There are a number of individuals and community groups working on
this method. It is heartening that the people involved care so much about the
situation and are prepared to do something about it. And it will help a
small group of wombats for a short time. Unfortunately it has not proven to be
a treatment method that works long term. Sleepy Burrows has asked a number of times for the
evidence that the burrow flap treatment method works long term. Unfortunately we are not able to be told which wombats have been treated and whether they have received a
full course of treatment. There is currently no evidence that wombats treated are 12
months later mange free, that the parasites have been eradicated from the
environment, that there has been fox control, and control of other
manged wombats moving around the environment.

Wombats do move around from burrow to burrow, and the mites do survive in
the wombat’s environment and re-infect resident wombats. It is our firm belief
that we are not penetrating the management of the sarcoptic mite long term.
There are many aspects to eradicating mange, not just treating a few wombats in
isolated areas for a few weeks. This ultimately achieves very little and prolongs a
horrific death for the wombats. It needs to be done properly, on the correct
scale.

What You can Do

There are a number of things that you could do to help. We need to
coordinate all efforts into one voice so that the Australian and State
Governments have no option but take action. But apart from that, the most
critical item is that wombat hospitals with quarantine facilities are built at
the participating sanctuaries. We cannot treat these large numbers of wombats
without quarantining them as they will infect the healthy wombats currently in
care.

The Financial aspect: 1)
Donate directly to the fundraiser for a mange hospital, go toMaking A Difference Go Fund Raise or
2) if you are interested in becoming
a Wombassador and being involved longer term, you could join
the Sleepy Burrows Wombat Coffee Club for $10 (or more if you can) a month. For
more information about the Sanctuary and the Coffee club, visit the pages on this website Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary. All donations to Sleepy Burrows are tax-deductible for Australian residents.

Coordinated Questions and Complaints: Target Australian
political leaders with questions and complaints about the lack of action that
has led to this situation of one of Australia's iconic, protected, native
animals being left in such a condition of neglect and ongoing animal cruelty,
to the extent that our wombats are being wiped out.

Below are some links that you can use to lodge a complaint:

Australian Federal Government and NSW State Government
contacts:

For lodging questions and complaints about what is being done about wombats
and the mange problem. Make sure you ask for a response in the email contact
webform.

It is incredibly important that all manged wombat sightings are logged, what
action has been taken and what has happened or not happened as a result of
reporting. Sleepy Burrows is logging all sightings reported by members of the
public. We encourage members of the public to report sightings to their local
wildlife care group in the first instance, ask them what are they going to do.
Follow up with them in a week, a month, six months and ask them what they have
done. Keep us informed about your progress.

You can also log photos, location and date of manged wombats on a Facebook page dedicated to highlighting wombat mange, Wombat Mange Diaries.

A Final Word

As noted above, the NSW Department of Primary Industries uses the following
criterion as one of the definitions of animal cruelty:

“Animals which are left untreated following an injury
or illness”

Your choice. You can sit and do nothing like the government and watch this species die out.

Or, you can join us and fight for this species, the bare nosed wombat!